Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 - January 2017 i Handguns

Working Just Fine I thoroughly enjoy Handguns. It’s a magazine I read from cover to cover more than once. I read Jim Tarr’s article on the Springfield Range Officer Operator, and I agree with him on all statements as to the performance of this pistol—with the exception of the magazines furnished with the Operator. I have several Springfield pistols, and in my three Range Officers, as well as my one Operator, I’ve used every magazine you can imagine and never ever have I had a problem with feed regardless of ammunition. I’ve even used Colt mags that are at least 50 years old and have had no problems. I believe I’d check the lips very closely for possible shipping damage before I’d make a statement like he did. Again, I’ve…

BEGINNING IN 1871 HARRINGTON & Richardson started to make various revolvers, mostly low-price models in various calibers. This iconic firm originated as a partnership between Frank Wesson and his nephew Gilbert Harrington—using early patents by Nathan Harrington. Gilbert Harrington bought out Wesson in 1874 and formed Harrington & Richardson with former Wesson employee William Richardson. Most of the guns it produced were.32 and .38 calibers, and many were blackpowder guns. But the firm also produced the full-size American from 1883 to 1941. Most Americans were .32s and .38s, but some were chambered in .44 Russian in a five-shot configuration as well as .44 Webley. The frame and gun were very light—too light for a .44 caliber round, in my opinion. I doubt it was meant for a lot of shooting…

IN ONE OF MY RECENT CLASSES, I HAD a female student show up wearing her single column 9mm subcompact in the middle of her back. To better set the stage, this young lady was the mother of two small children and worked very hard to keep herself trim and in shape. While I do not know for sure, I would bet her waistline wasn’t much bigger than 24 to 25 inches. When I saw her carry location, I asked her why she chose to carry there. She said it was comfortable and allowed her to conceal the pistol under a wide variety of common clothing styles. It also kept the gun hidden as she knelt to deal with her two children. I counseled her on the potential safety problems of…

On a trip to the White House in 1942, Winston Churchill became so enamored with the idea of building a pistol that could be air-dropped behind enemy lines that he woke President Franklin Roosevelt at four in the morning to discuss the idea. The gun would have to weigh less than a pound, had to be so mechanically sound it could be dropped from passing airplanes, and had to be so foolproof and of such basic construction that even an illiterate fighter who spoke no English could, following the included photos, make the gun fire. And since this gun was to be a single-shot and that one trigger pull might be a resistance fighter’s only defense against an enemy, the caliber had to be suitable to stop a soldier with…

If you wander across Europe, it is pretty common to find companies that have been in business for hundreds of years. American history works on a much smaller scale, and here a business’s success is measured in decades, not centuries. So it’s pretty impressive that in 2016 Remington celebrated its 200th anniversary. Recently, Remington has gone back to its roots, in a way. The Remington R51 is a modernized version of the successful Remington Model 51 designed by John Pedersen and produced by Remington from 1918 to 1927. None other than John Moses Browning proclaimed Pedersen “the greatest gun designer in the world.” Remington was looking for a modernized version of the Model 51, and after a bit more trial and error than it had anticipated, the R51 is now…

HONOR DEFENSE OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED its line late in 2015, and from the start it was clear that one way the company was going to try to distinguish its pistols was through the use of all American-made components—as well as employing many U.S. military veterans as part of its workforce. Honor Defense calls its 9mm semiauto the Honor Guard Sub-Compact. This pistol has a 3.2-inch barrel and is rated for +P ammo, although the company is very clear that the gun should never be fired with +P+ fodder. The gun is also available with what Honor Defense calls a Firearm Integrated Standoff (FIST) extended frame—which keeps the pistol from going out of battery should the gun be pressed against an attacker—as well as a version with a Crimson Trace laser. (At…

A FEW MONTHS AGO, DURING A GUN shop conversation, I mentioned my top handgun choices: the Colt 1911, Browning Hi Power and CZ 75. A gentleman older than myself nodded but added, “Well, that’s okay, but when have you heard of a Tokarev failing or tying up?” He wore a leather jacket with a Vietnam veteran chevron. He brushed it back to reveal a Tokarev TT33. “You boys think that good guns are expensive. It ain’t so. They just have to be good guns.” I agree on principle and favor military-grade service pistols for my own use and protection, and I have to admit the Tokarev is an effective handgun and perhaps the most rugged service pistol ever fielded. Moreover, the history of the Tokarev shows innovation and intelligent design…

POLYCASE’S NEWEST OFFERING IS A .38 Special featuring the company’s ARX bullet, which has an interesting 77-grain weight. The listed velocity is 1,116 fps, which is at first glance pretty enthusiastic, but keep that weight in mind. The ARX bullet does not expand. The three flutes in the bullet profile are the aspects of the bullet that do the work of creating a wound channel. The mathematics of fluid dynamics are beyond our scope, but testing indicates that they work. The rotating bullet drives into the target, and flutes attempt to push aside the tissue it travels through. The shape of the flutes works to accelerate the tissue as it is pushed, and this creates the wound channel and decelerates the bullet, and we can tell the ARX is working…

UPDATED UBERTI 1873 CATTLEMAN Now you can load up with an 1873 revolver that looks historically accurate but has a retractable firing pin so you don’t have to keep an empty chamber under the hammer. The new Cattleman’s firing pin floats free in a guide inside the hammer, and it locks into place—enabling the gun to fire—only when the trigger is pressed from a fully cocked position. The beauty is it doesn’t require a hammer safety bar or transfer bar that can ruin a gun’s historical looks. Available in .45 Colt, .44-40 WCF and .357 Magnum. { $559, steel trigger guard/backstrap (shown), $549, brass; UBERTI.COM } TRIUMPH SYSTEMS PIVOTAL TRAINER Few people have easy access to turning targets, and the Pivotal Trainer answers this need with an reasonably affordable, easily…

Do you remember the first time you fired a gun? If you’re like most, you were somewhat apprehensive, perhaps more worried about what the gun would do in your hand than whether or not you hit your target. Shooting is unnatural, especially for the neophyte. Even experienced shooters often flinch as they press the trigger—an instinctive effort to counteract the effects of recoil. In fact, anticipation of recoil is often touted as the No. 1 shooting error. As if missing your first shot wasn’t bad enough, if you don’t effectively manage recoil, follow-up shots will be slower and less accurate. In order to be confident in your shooting ability and in control of your gun, you need to tame the beast known as recoil. But given the fact that Newton’s…

For a long time if you wanted serious horsepower in a handgun, your choice was simple:.44 Magnum. If you wanted power in a pistol other than the Desert Eagle, you were pretty much left out in the cold. And then came the 10mm. No sooner had it been unveiled than there were serious efforts to tone it down and make it a metric .45 ACP. And then the FBI denatured it so much it morphed into the .40 S&W—not what people want for hunting, bear defense or any other use for a heavy-hitting handgun that can actually be worn instead of lugged. But all along there were full-power 10mm loads to be had, and handloading was always an option. In the last few years the 10mm has started to see…

We’re saddened to inform you that longtime columnist Walt Rauch passed away a few months ago at the age of 77. We thank one of the people who knew him best—well-known firearms television host and author Michael Bane—for this remembrance. BECAUSE WE ARE LIVING IN A GOLDEN Age of firearms, competitions, new designs and amazing innovations, it’s hard to remember that not so long ago much of what we take for granted didn’t exist. It’s harder still to realize this firearms world we take for granted was not the product of some grand scheme or a master plan by the industry but rather a few exceptional, driven men. We said a last goodbye to one of those men when Walt Rauch left the range for the final time after a…

CROSSBREED WAS A HOLSTER COMPANY whose name I heard quite often before I ever had a chance to try out its products. My first exposure to its holsters was one of its Minituck IWB models, which came with the Remington RM380 I got in for testing. Remington, like a lot of gun companies, partners with accessory manufacturers, so holsters/lasers/grips are available for new pistols as soon as those pistols hit the market. Many of those gun companies choose CrossBreed Holsters, which should tell consumers something. CrossBreed doesn’t make competition holsters; all of its models are designed for the CCW crowd, which means its design priority is concealment. While the firm makes one ankle holster and two pocket holsters, the remainder of its offerings are belt holsters, as on the belt…

Over the past few years SIG Sauer has been expanding its business in a largely successful attempt to take over the firearms world. It has entered new product segments (suppressors, airguns, ammunition, optics) and helped revolutionize the dying AR pistol category with the SIG brace. Along the way it has introduced so many new firearms that even people in the gun industry have a hard time keeping up. One of SIG’s increasingly successful products gaining sales and momentum is its striker-fired P320 pistol, and the company just introduced a new model of the gun featuring a factory-mounted mini red dot. Designated the P320 RX, this version of the P320 features SIG’s Romeo 1 mini red dot sight. The clever RX in the title signifies a prescription, as in a lot…

In days of yesteryear, shooters cast their own bullets because of the lack of available reloading component bullets; because they could enhance performance by sizing to match gun-specific bore diameters and by varying the hardness of the alloy used; and because if you wanted to shoot a lot, casting made good economical sense. These days, if you’ve got a job that provides well for you and your family, casting your own handgun bullets doesn’t make good economical sense. Once you’ve purchased the initial equipment, set it all up, scrounged old wheelweights or scrap lead, and then put in the time to actually cast the bullets, you could have more easily just put in a few hours of overtime and purchased factory-cast projectiles of the same type or even jacketed component…

HERITAGE MANUFACTURING STICKS TO the credo of “Do one thing and do it well.” The Miami firm, established in 1992 and purchased by Taurus in 2012, makes only single-action revolvers patterned after the Colt Single Action Army. Heritage produces two lines of Rough Rider revolvers, one smallbore and one big bore—the former available in .22 Long Rifle and .22 Magnum and the latter in .45 Colt, .44-40 and .357 Magnum. With their trough rear sights and simple blade fronts, the centerfire versions would be considered legal for SASS cowboy action competition, and the subject of this article, model RR22B6—a six-shot .22 LR—should pass muster for SASS’s Buckaroo (junior) category. But, really, who needs a reason to buy a gun like this? The Rough Rider is simply fun to shoot, and…